Killing probe moves slowly

Killing probe moves slowly

Ulysses Cantey was shot as he answered a knock at his door, police said, but before he could open it. Five shots were pumped through the door, one hitting Cantey in his heart, killing him.

“We can’t say for absolute certainty that he was the person targeted,” Public Safety Commissioner Wayne Bennett said Tuesday. “But he was the one who did become the victim.”

Cantey, 40, whose last name has also been spelled “Canty,” was killed just before 7:30 a.m. Monday at 933 Albany St. There were three people in the apartment at the time, Bennett said. The other two were unharmed.

The apartment house remained cordoned off Tuesday with police tape. The tape was ringed with votive candles. An officer stood guard outside.

Police had no suspects on Tuesday, Bennett said.

Some hopes were pinned on a rental car found crashed into a pole a short time after the shooting. The car crashed at Victory Avenue and Mynderse Street, its occupants fleeing. The vehicle was at the police station Tuesday being processed, department spokesman Lt. Brian Kilcullen said.

Police were also looking into any links to a May shooting on Stanley Street. Cantey was arrested in late July, accused of firing approximately 10 shots at a man in the 700 block of Stanley Street, records show. No one was injured.

Police on Tuesday were still trying to determine Cantey’s permanent address. He did not live at the Albany Street location where he was killed.

Cantey had filed several papers for business names in recent years, including the names “Lion Den Apparels” and “Lions Den Grocery,” submitting home addresses on Grove Place in Schenectady and Queens Village downstate.

He had also incurred nearly $4,000 in fees and fines from the state Department of Taxation and Finance, county records show. The fines suggest he didn’t submit proper sales tax filings, officials said.

In 2005, he gave a business location at 898 Albany St. His most recent filing, in December, was for a business at 909 Crane St. A “Lion’s Den” sign remained at the location Tuesday, but the storefront was cleared out and a “For Rent” sign was in the window.

He also gave a Crane Street address as his, when he was arrested in July, charged in the May 25 shooting. That shooting happened just before noon, records show.

The alleged target escaped injury, but lost control of his girlfriend’s Lexus fleeing and struck a tree. The pursuit then continued on foot until the man got away.

Cantey was charged with felony weapons possession and felony reckless endangerment. He was released only after a $25,000 bond was posted, officials said.

While any relationship between the two incidents was unclear, Bennett said the prior incident shows that guns were available.

“Here, a subject who was involved with the use of firearms himself very recently now becomes a victim of firearms,” Bennett said. That’s the problem when people resort to the use of firearms, sooner or later, the odds are going to catch up to them.”